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Author: Corey Cook  398 days after leaving Earth orbit Gabrielle paced back and forth in the embarkation area, her hands nervously fiddling with the fitting straps on her spacesuit. Not that she would admit to being nervous, or indeed apprehensive, tense, or space-shy. Or downright scared. In fact, all that she would admit to, was annoyance at herself for being... 'unsettled'... when she'd been in space a dozen times already. But the truth was that she had been petrified every single time, and had completed her astronaut (shuttle craft, class three) certification through willpower alone, clamping down on the part of her that wanted nothing to do with flying through space in a small Eagle transport, and performing her duties with steely resolve while that part of her panicked internally. It was just nerves, she'd told herself - she hadn't been in space for almost a year, and that was on a considerably larger craft, in an insulated passenger area with gravity and everything. The tenth time she had come close to admitting that she had a problem with spaceflight, but had stopped short, because admitting that would mean facing up to the reason why her attitude had changed since her younger days when she'd delighted in being taken for rides in her father's orbit-hopper. That was before - before she'd come to the moon for a five-day assignment to help sort out some glitches in the hydroponic set-ups she'd helped design back in her Caltech lab. Before a freak meteor shower and a malfunctioning energy screen had resulted in the moon's atomic waste storage facility exploding, tearing the moon out of orbit. Before the resulting space-warp had sent the moon, and the surviving population of Moonbase Alpha - Gabrielle among them - skipping across the galaxy, phasing into normal space for days or weeks whenever they passed through a gravity well in some far-flung star system, then hurtling on at speeds no rescue craft could ever reach. Gabrielle had spent the first three days in complete denial. Even on the other side of the satellite from the glassed crater where the atomic facility had been, Alpha was a wreck, and even Gabrielle's limited engineering abilities were needed to help cobble together repairs for life-support. And in truth, helping to patch together damaged circuits and improvise air scrubbers and gravity coils out of spare parts had let her ignore what had happened. Once the situation stabilised enough that the base's permanent staff could handle it, Gabrielle had retired to her assigned guest quarters and, once it hit her, cried, not eating, barely sleeping. She lost an unhealthy amount of weight, but she was not alone in her despair, and Alpha's medical staff had its hands full just coping with the outright suicidal. Work had been Gabrielle's path back to normality. Once she had cried herself dry, once her body was simply no longer capable of sustaining the level of despair she had sunk to, shame had taken over. She had been useless, worse than useless, when Alpha could have used her help. She had returned to the hydroponic bays and conducted a redesign, adapting the set-up to account for the damage and the loss of several plant stocks, and had managed to bring the facility up to a sustainable level. But once that had been seen to, and the bays were running smoothly and needing barely an hour or two of her time every day, she needed something else to do, in order to be able to sleep - she had to be useful, somehow. So, after consulting with Alpha's commander, she had begun training to upgrade her entry-level astronaut qualifications to the point where she would be capable of flying an Eagle transport, and thus eligible to go on planetary missions when the moon's erratic course came close to a habitable world. Though no-one had ever pressured her, she knew her skills were needed - depending on the vagaries of their space-warp, Eagle teams could have less than a month to assess a world, gather valuable minerals and organic matter for Alpha, and make the all-important decision: was this world safe enough, stable enough, habitable enough, for the population of the moon base to abandon their rogue satellite and settle a new world? So far, none had been - settlement was a one-way trip, and the standards were set accordingly high. But Gabrielle, by far the most experienced botanist among Alpha's population, could shave hours, perhaps days, off the time needed to make an assessment, and in spite of the difficulty of the training, in spite of the stomach-twisting anxiety she discovered on first setting foot on an Eagle, she persisted. She heard the hum that signalled the arrival of a travel tube car, and grabbed her helmet from the storage rack to keep her hands still. She stood at attention as the car's party emerged from the tube: Commander Koenig, grim-faced and slow to trust, but fiercely protective of his crew; Helena Russel, the base's chief surgeon; Alan Carter, Gabrielle's tutor in spaceflight and unquestioned natural at piloting any kind of spacecraft; Tanya Alexander, deputy head of the science division; and lastly, a tall, athletic woman whose downcast eyes and unassuming, hunched stance were not quite adequate to the task of keeping her from standing out: Xena. "Ensign Covington," the Commander greeted Gabrielle, using her newly-acquired rank, before standing in front of the four doorways leading to the Eagle bays, and turning to survey the assembled crew. "I'll keep this brief; we've got a two-day flight ahead of us, so there'll be plenty of time to review the mission parameters in detail. Alpha's path will keep us in Eagle range of this world for ten days, before we re-enter space-warp. With a safety margin of four days, that only leaves us two to survey the planet and supply ourselves. There's no possibility of settling here - not enough time for a full survey. "Doctor Russel and I will be in Eagle Three, on the world's primary satellite - our scans indicate useful quantities of ores needed for Alpha's life-support systems. Carter and Alexander will be in Eagle Four, performing short-range scans of likely sites for minerals on the planet itself - we haven't been able to isolate any accessible deposits from here, so you'll choose your own landing site depending on what your Eagle's scanners can find. Covington and Xena, you'll be landing on the southern continent in Eagle Six. It's fitted with storage tanks for water, provided you don't find any dangerous impurities - water is our main concern, so see to that first. We also need compatible germination stock from the plant life, if there is any - you know your field best, so act on your own judgement. Any questions?" He paused a moment. "Very well, safe flight to you all. T-minus fifty minutes." He and the other officers busied themselves donning and checking their spacesuits, except for one, who wore hers already. Gabrielle found herself face to face with Xena, already in her suit - she risked a glance up at the woman's striking features, cheekbones emphasised by the alien markings on her face, wary eyes looking down at her feet beneath elegant, rippled bone-ridges taking the place of eyebrows, caution and hesitation in her every move. "Ensign," she said quietly. Gabrielle nodded automatically, while her stomach flip-flopped. "Let's get on board," she replied, with a confidence she had to work hard to project. Gabrielle strode steadily on the tiny treadmill crammed into the Eagle's crew quarters, the elastic belt around her waist keeping her anchored in place and filling in for gravity. Though not a frequent flyer, she made her full allotment's worth of use of Alpha's exercise facilities, and the routines mandated on zero-gee vessels weren't so different, besides the necessary adaptations to the equipment. Normally she would be using the time to review the hydroponics reports, but those were back on Alpha, and wouldn't be sent to her unless it was an emergency. So, her mind wandered. It was something she rarely allowed, since the accident - so rarely that she'd more or less forgotten she was avoiding it, and hadn't thought to bring any extra work to keep her mind occupied on the long flight. Xena was on her mind. The woman had said barely a dozen words to her since they had boarded, and those had been routine reports demanded by her duties as co-pilot during take-off, delivered with the efficiency and impersonality of a computer. Gabrielle had heard plenty of rumours to the effect since Xena's arrival a month ago - her mind was faster and more capable than Alpha's main computer, some said. It was rumoured she had no emotions, and though Gabrielle had at first doubted it, the alien's behaviour so far seemed to support it. That she was a shape-shifter was common knowledge. Gabrielle had even seen it, once, when a cosmic storm caused a rupture in a coolant tank near hydroponics - Xena had transformed in the blink of an eye into a brilliantly-coloured reptilian, half-humanoid half-avian, and by the time the emergency crews in their isolation suits had arrived she had sealed the breach, and started to vent the waist-deep toxic gas in the chamber, which in that form she was breathing without difficulty. Rumour said that even her 'normal' form was assumed, that in truth she was... what? No two sources agreed, but speculation was rife. Even the circumstances of her arrival on Alpha were debated, away from the view of superior officers, who did what they could to keep gossip to a minimum. The official story was that she had been among the last survivors of her race - Psychons - and that another of her kind had attempted to imprison the Alphan survey team who had landed on their world. Koenig had vouched for her publicly, saying that she had defied her fellow Psychon and rescued the humans, and been rescued herself when some failed experiment had caused the planet's destruction. She was now Alpha's primary science officer, and mixed freely among the moon base's senior staff, but outside of Command Centre there was much scepticism and mistrust. Gabrielle heard whispered rumours that Xena had been part of the attempt to ensnare the Alphans, and had switched sides when she realised her world was doomed, blaming her comrades entirely for the hostility she had been a part of. Or even that she was a telepath, as well as a metamorph, and had somehow mind-controlled the visiting humans into helping her leave her world, where she faced execution for some terrible crime or other. When she had first appeared, there were some whose paranoia got the better of them, and who believed that the entire landing party, Koenig and Dr Russel included, had been replaced by Psychons, with Xena accompanying them as their unspoken leader, but the continued failure of any evidence to appear of a Psychon takeover eventually put at least those theories to rest. Gabrielle wasn't sure how she felt about spending the next few days in Xena's company. Part of her was apprehensive, the primal part that feared the alien woman, the unknown that she represented. The rational part of her dismissed this as unworthy of a civilised being, and maintained that Xena's demeanour ensured that, if nothing else, they would work perfectly well together as professionals. And the part of her that had stared entranced when she first saw Xena, that mentally replayed every brief sighting of her, in corridors, or in the fitness centre, or the occasions when she reported to Command Centre, the part of her that emerged late at night and imagined Xena's eyes on her, those hands on her body- Gabrielle mentally shook herself, and upped the pacing on the treadmill. Immature fantasies, nothing but base attraction to something exotic - she had dismissed the urges over and over. Yet they always seemed to return... She grabbed the data pad clipped to the table beside herself, and loaded the mission parameters. She had read them already, but there was no harm in being thorough. And it would keep her mind off Xena. "Ensign Covington... to the cockpit, please." Xena's voice startled Gabrielle out of her nap, and for a few seconds she glanced around the crew quarters, wondering where the dark-haired woman was, before she realised it had been the intercom. The two had rarely seen each other since launching two days ago - Gabrielle had immersed herself in preparing theoretical models for assessing the indigenous flora of their destination, and Xena had remained in the cockpit much of the time, where Gabrielle hadn't been needed since take-off. She had got up the nerve to ask if Xena was comfortable once, a day out from Alpha, and the Psychon had nodded, with a polite smile but not meeting Gabrielle's curious gaze, and murmured that she preferred to spend her time working with the direct computer interface in her co-pilot's station. She seemed to only need two or three hours' sleep a night - it was only the slight evidence of moved blankets and sheets on her bunk that had told Gabrielle that she had slept at all on the first 'night', ship's time, but the second she had gotten to bed late herself, and had been dimly aware of Xena quietly sliding into her bunk sometime in the early morning. Gabrielle's flight path had brought them to the new planet on the third morning of their trip, a couple of hours after Commander Koenig and Dr Russel's Eagle had landed on its moon. Captain Carter had nicknamed the world 'Olympus', after spotting a gigantic mountain during the initial destination scans he and Alexander had begun to perform half-way through their flight - due to the general hostility of the mountainous terrain where they had planned to begin their search for useful minerals, they had elected to circle around to the far side and scan for a more likely landing site there, leaving Gabrielle and Xena to make first planetfall. In spite of her anxiety at being back in the cockpit, especially during a potentially hazardous atmospheric landing, Gabrielle was eager for her first mission to truly begin - so eager that she had found herself suited up and ready an hour ahead of schedule, and had dozed off waiting. Moving hand over hand along the handrails in the Eagle's interior, Gabrielle arrived at the cockpit and manoeuvred herself into the pilot's seat, next to Xena with the master engine console between them. She gave her co-pilot a quick glance, and her eyes lingered a moment longer than she had meant to - at first, a stray strand of Xena's raven black hair had caught her attention, but on looking past it, she had noticed slight shadows beneath the Psychon's eyes. She wondered briefly if they indicated tiredness, as they would in a human, but on watching Xena's hands on the controls for a few seconds, she found the other woman's reactions swift as always. "Check telemetry with Eagles Three and Four," she ordered. Xena had the data on her screen in an instant. "Telemetry links active, five by five to Eagle Three, four by three to Eagle Four - fringe effects from the atmosphere," she added, explaining the slightly weaker signal between their transport and Captain Carter's. "Loss of direct signal to Eagle Three in six minutes, to Eagle Four in one hundred thirty seconds, accounting for our orbital path." "Program radio relay satellite, release at projected optimum," Gabrielle said smoothly. "Programmed," Xena replied at once. Gabrielle glanced at her in surprise. "Atmospheric scans were sufficiently high-res last night to prepare the satellite program," she explained, noting Gabrielle's look and then returning her eyes to her controls. "Good work," Gabrielle said automatically. "Set for release in forty seconds," Xena responded neutrally. "Flight path?" Gabrielle asked. "Within path, drift negligible," Xena replied. Gabrielle devoted her attention to slowly powering up the Eagle's primary thrusters, and performing a few low-yield spot checks, burning minute amounts of fuel through opposing pairs of jets to ensure their operation without changing the transport's course. After a short while there was a muted thump from below their feet. "Radio satellite away," Xena reported. "Relayed telemetry is good, five by five to Eagle Three. Return signals from Alpha are good, delay four point five minutes send-to-confirm." "I'm bringing us into our descent path," Gabrielle said, working to keep her voice calm. "Energy fields building, set to thermal dissipation. Beginning programmed roll." "Monitoring energy fields, all readings normal." Caught in the grip of the planet's gravity, the Eagle scribed a shallow curve through space, drawing nearer and rolling to bring its heat-shielded belly to bear on the first wisps of upper atmosphere. Tiny jets of white vapour flickered along the transport's leading edge, slowing it, nestling it further into the grip of the planet's pull. Flecks of orange and red flame licked the edges of the ship's hull, building in intensity to a white-hot shell of superheated plasma as the Eagle rocketed into the heavy atmosphere. Keep it together, Gabrielle willed herself. This is normal. I'm trained for this. Humans have been doing this for decades. The cockpit was steadily lit by ugly, strobe-light flares through the viewports, as atmosphere burned around them. God, I hate this. She forced her hands to the controls, fighting the shuddering of the craft and the slow, steady return of gravity after two days in weightlessness. "Beginning second stage deceleration," she announced over the roar from outside. "Fields are good, systems are good," Xena replied, raising her voice. Gabrielle throttled the landing thruster quads into life, feeling the steady force pulling her forward as they began to slow, then she was thrown back in her seat, yanked sideways, and there was an almighty flash of light and whoosh from outside. "Report!" she yelled automatically, as her wits scampered around inside her head. "Some sort of atmospheric effect!" Xena shouted above the blaring of alert sirens - Gabrielle slapped an override to silence them, but the unsteady roaring of air around the hull remained deafening. "We're sideways!" she yelled in alarm, as the meaning of her flight console's readings came to her. "Lateral spin!" "Thrusters ignited some sort of gas pocket!" Xena reported, bracing herself with one hand while the other operated her computer. "Some compound in the upper atmosphere shielded them from sensors!" "Can you compensate? We need thrusters!" Gabrielle ordered. "Brace!" she added, as her hand hovered for an instant over the air brake controls, then hit them hard. Both women were jerked forward against their harnesses, as heavy panels at the rear of the transport swung open, fighting against the rushing air. "Brakes aren't working!" Gabrielle realised, with mounting horror. "Electrostatic field!" Xena replied. "We're slip-streaming! Adjusting thruster fuel mix... Thrusters safe to fire!" Gabrielle hit the stabilising quads as hard as she dared, and held tight to her flight yoke as the Eagle slewed around. The transport veered out of its sideways dive, but unsteadily, threatening to oversteer and spin the other way. "We're coming in fast!" she warned, fighting the overspin. "Stability's not good!" "Burn rear acceleration thrusters, top and bottom! Two second burn!" Xena yelled. Gabrielle shot her an incredulous look, but at the sincere pleading in the Psychon's eyes - the first time Xena had truly held her gaze - her protest died in her throat, and she hit the controls. They were jolted forwards for an instant, but even as they gathered speed the Eagle's descent evened out, and Gabrielle found she could point the nose straight ahead with almost no difficulty. "Flight path stable," she said in relief, as the whoosh of air outside steadied. "Braking... We're overshooting our landing grid, but I can compensate. We'll make it." She heard a heartfelt sigh from beside her, and glanced at Xena to see the same expression of exulted relief on her face as she imagined was on her own. "What was with the acceleration jets?" Gabrielle asked. "Oh," Xena smiled for a moment, "I realised the gas pocket we ignited set up some kind of plasma field around the hull, a cocoon of sorts that we were dragging with us, and which was streaming the air past the braking plates. Logically the airflow made the cocoon most fragile there - firing the rear thrusters popped it like a bubble, and the air hit the brake plates again." "Which pulled us out of our spin," Gabrielle smiled. "Quick thinking." "Thanks," Xena replied. "Relaying data to Eagle Four. They haven't begun descent yet. If they adjust their fuel mix, as we did, they'll have no trouble with the gas pockets." Gabrielle nodded, and turned her attention back to her controls, breathing deeply as the elation began to give way to minor shock at their close call. But the rest of their descent was untroubled - under her guidance the Eagle dipped down easily towards their landing site, slowed to a near-halt in mid-air, cushioned on the thrust of the powerful landing jets, and settled down amid a rush of exhaust vapour and a billowing cloud of dust kicked up by the jets. Gabrielle stood for a moment on the Eagle's embarkation ramp, then walked down to the surface of Olympus, quietly grateful that her legs weren't visibly shaking. She looked around at the placid woodland, with the sparkling of sunlight on water revealing the lake just beyond the trees to the west, then turned, hearing footsteps behind her, and exchanged a brief smile with Xena at they silently shared the calm beauty of their surroundings. Gabrielle knew without a doubt that their heart-stopping landing would haunt her when it came time to lift off again, but for now she was content - the shared triumph of bringing their troubled Eagle down safely had created a bond between her and Xena, and the earlier sense of uneasy politeness at being together had dissipated. "It's like Earth," she spoke up after a moment. "Like England, where I did my Master's degree. Hope I don't get homesick," she joked. "Psychon was like this once, a long time ago," Xena said. "I've seen holograms of it. This is like stepping into the past." She carefully put a hand on Gabrielle's shoulder, and breathed out gently when it wasn't refused. "I miss home too." Gabrielle smiled, and nodded in acknowledgement of the comfort her companion had extended. "Let's get to work, huh?" she suggested. "I'll get the samplers running in the lake, and start warming up the scrubbers in case we need them." "I'll fly around a bit," Xena replied. "Get an idea of the terrain first-hand." "Fly around?" Gabrielle noted. Xena nodded, with a quick grin, and together they picked up the two packs of scanning equipment and began walking towards the lake. "What's it like?" the redhead asked. "It's... surprising," Xena replied. "Surprising? How so?" "It's an ability of instinct, far more than intellect," Xena explained. "Not the transformation, that's different, but the forms I take... I can see a creature, even remotely, like the images I've seen of your world's life, and part of me takes in almost everything about it, recognises every sign, every clue of form and motion and action and reaction, well enough to mimic it. Even creatures I've never encountered in person. But all that happens without me being aware of it - it's a skill I developed, but not one I do consciously. It's only when I take a form that I understand it. What it is, to be that creature - how it moves, how it sees the world. Every new form is a surprise." "It must be nice to be able to see the world differently," Gabrielle said. "It is," Xena nodded. "For a while. But it's good to know I'll come back to myself. Otherwise I'd get... 'homesick' for the kind of creature that I am. In any case I can't maintain another form indefinitely." "No?" "Molecular transformation requires exertion," the Psychon explained. "To transform, and to remain transformed - to keep my molecules in unfamiliar forms, to retain my relation to the sub-ether, to effectively gain or lose mass. My body knows what it is - to be something else is a matter of continuously resisting the natural pull to revert. I can maintain a form easily for half an hour, and push myself to an hour if I really needed to. But no more than that, at the moment, though it only takes a moment to 'recharge' between transformations. It improves with practise - my first transformation lasted barely an instant." "I never knew that," Gabrielle said. "That you learned it, I mean. I guess I assumed it was an ability you had naturally." "Psychons naturally transform inert matter," Xena replied. "Part of the digestive process. But learning to transform one's own living body, and maintain the transformation against the living impulse to revert, takes years to master, and an aptitude which is far from universal. My father knew the theory perfectly - he taught me - but he was never able to transform himself." Her eyes grew distant, looking into memories. Your father, Gabrielle thought. One of the other Psychons... either long dead, or he died when Psychon was destroyed. Don't dredge up painful memories Gabby, not when you're finally having a conversation. "So a human couldn't do it?" she asked. "Even if they learned what you learned?" "No," Xena shook her head. "But you have abilities Psychons don't." "We do?" "Colour, for example. We only see intensities of light, not spectral wavelengths. I only knew about colour as a theory, until I learned to transform into creatures that could see it. I'm more used to it now - I do split-second transformations of just my eyes, when I have to, to read your computer screens." "You see in monochrome," Gabrielle mused. "I didn't know that either. Call me Miss Uninformed." "I keep to myself," Xena said, dismissing Gabrielle's mild self-criticism with a smile and shake of her head. "I know there's some uneasiness about me on Alpha, so I try to limit how visible I am. No sense in stirring everyone up for no reason." "You don't make me uneasy," Gabrielle replied. Xena took a long glance at her, and smiled faintly. "I like that," she said. "Thank you." She looked around at the lake shore they had arrived at. "Here we are," Gabrielle observed. "You don't need any help setting these up?" Xena asked, dropping her equipment pack at the redhead's feet. "No thanks, I could do it in my sleep," she grinned. "I'll fly, then." She paused a moment, then spoke again. "I've never talked... like this... with anyone, since I left Psychon. As... friends." Gabrielle didn't miss the implied question. "I'm glad we did," she said, taking Xena's hand briefly - the Psychon looked slightly surprised, but didn't pull back, so Gabrielle held it for a moment longer before releasing it. "I'll be back soon," Xena said. "I'll be here," Gabrielle smiled. Xena nodded, then turned, took two steps, broke into a sprint, and then quicker than Gabrielle could follow the change there was a hawk in her place, beating its wings to turn its speed into an upward soar. Gabrielle watched as the bird dwindled into a moving dot in the sky, then turned and devoted her attention to her scanners. An hour later Gabrielle was methodically making her way around the lake shore, scanning plants as they caught her eye, and generally letting her mind wander. Ten minutes' worth of tests had proven the lake water eminently suitable for Alpha's needs, and the Eagle's pumps were at work, just a little below full strength to ward off mechanical stress, filling the transport's attached fluid tank to capacity - where Gabrielle was, the sound of the pumps was just audible, a quiet hum. Xena had briefly returned, reporting an interesting cluster of rock formations a few miles away, and taken off again with some more specific scanning equipment, with Gabrielle following on foot, using her communicator's homing function to keep a fix on Xena's position, though her directions were clear enough in any case. Gabrielle wondered about Xena. She didn't recall having ever seen Xena smile in more than a polite way on Alpha. Not that she had had a great deal of contact with her, but she had seen her around, enough to realise now that she had always been ill-at-ease on the base. No doubt she was aware of the rumours about her, and if her senses were acute enough to pick up the subtleties of a creature she had only seen on a video screen, they certainly couldn't have missed the curious, wary glances people gave her, the way conversations would close in when she passed, and resume quietly in her wake. Gabrielle wondered what it was like for her, feeling so alone among hundreds of people. The redhead wasn't exceptionally social herself, at least, not outside of her colleagues in hydroponics - there, she knew she had a reputation for being able to talk a person's ear off, but she kept to herself after hours. Still, she knew that she at least could sit down at a table in one of the rec rooms with any of the people from outside her work area that she knew in passing, and feel welcome. Feeling unwelcome... it was no wonder Xena chose to keep to herself. Gabrielle tried to picture things differently. Xena smiling, relaxing... laughing? Sitting around a table with others, talking, joking, playing cards. In the fitness centre with a partner, working out together, keeping each other motivated. Sharing a meal with someone. Talking late into the night. Kissing... Gabrielle blinked. Where the heck did that come from? Not that she was unfamiliar with Xena-related fantasies, but the thought had been so strong, so sudden. Must be that she's opening up to me. All the old hopes and dreams are bubbling to the surface. Have to keep an eye on that, don't want to say the wrong thing. She passed her scanner lazily across the plants in her path, gazing distantly across the lake's calm surface while she waited for something to register as abnormal. Kissing... Holding her in my arms... Her smiling, nodding when I shyly ask... "Yes, I want this too..." Running my fingers through her hair... Touching my lips to her cheek... My tongue running along those stripes up to her ears, then nibbling her earlobe..." Elsewhere, Xena's attention was all on her work, as she studied fragments of rock at the site she had noticed from high above. There seemed to be a kind of symmetry to the rocks, almost a pattern - something in their arrangement had put Xena in mind of something built, not naturally formed. Her suspicions were slowly being confirmed. "This is fashioned," she dictated into her communicator, which was functioning in recorder mode, as she looked over a piece of stone in her hand. "It all is... was, a building of some kind. How old? Centuries, millennia even, there's so much erosion. What was it?" She looked around, trying to picture the weather-worn forms as they had once been, upright, unbroken. "Rows of stone... columns, walls?... on either side. If there was a roof it's long gone, probably lighter stones than the rest, eroded away. A symmetrical layout. Some kind of hall..." Her gaze fell on the lake, spread out beneath the hillside the ruins were on, and she turned to look at the mountains rising up behind her. It would be three hours at least to nightfall - for the moment the sun shone over the mountain peaks, just beginning to cast shadows down towards the water. In the centre of the ruins, equidistant from either end, was a kind of boulder, smoothed into a featureless lump by years upon years of slow, patient erosion. Something sparked a memory. "I've seen temples on sites like this," she mused aloud. "The scale would be consistent with a public building, or at least a communal residence of some size. Perhaps there was some kind of altar, here," she added, gazing at the rock in the middle of the site. "Psychon had temples like this." Psychon's gone. They destroyed it. Xena frowned, wondering why that thought had entered her head now. The loss of her home was something she had come to terms with, or so she had thought. Not lost. Destroyed. By Alpha. Gabrielle drew to a halt, hearing a mechanical chirp. Her first thought was that her airily-waved scanner had picked up an anomaly, but on inspection it proved to be her communicator, reporting a loss of signal from Xena's homing beacon. She tried to reacquire, once and then a second time, with no luck. Looking up at the sky, where the sun was perhaps a couple of hours from setting, she switched the device to transmission mode. "Xena? Come in please." There was a few seconds' pause, just long enough for Gabrielle to consider repeating her signal. Then: "Receiving. Over." The voice was curt, but Gabrielle dismissed it in her mild relief. "I've lost your homing signal, are you alright?" "I'm fine. I had to switch the beacon off." A pause. "It was interfering with my instruments." "Oh, okay," Gabrielle nodded. "Could you direct me? I can't be more than half a mile away." "No need," Xena's clipped reply came back. "There's nothing of interest here. I'll meet you back at the Eagle." "Oh... Alright." "Out." The line went dead. Gabrielle took a last look around, then turned and began to retrace her steps, flipping over to the Eagle's beacon and moving away from the shore, so as to gather data on different areas on her way back. Xena's voice bothered her - she had seemed so warm, so... almost grateful for someone to talk to, earlier. Gabrielle scowled at the thought that the alien woman felt so isolated that any conversation was so welcome, but she had to admit, believing Xena truly wished to share her company had made her day. Now, though... Maybe she's just in work-mode, she consoled herself. Mind on the job, and all that. I get like that myself - sure, I get excitable rather than gruff, but it's the same cause at work. She'll be talkative again once we're back at the landing site. Images of Xena flitted through Gabrielle's mind like doves taking flight. Lips, piercing ice-blue eyes, silky raven-black hair, the way she moved, naked, skin gleaming, responding to my touch... I hope she's back to normal when we get back to the Eagle. Not far away, Xena sat with her back to the perhaps-altar, staring at the communicator in her hands. The anxious note in Gabrielle's voice had reached her, had drawn regret out of her faster than she could clamp down on it. No! They destroyed my home, killed my father! They're the enemy. She is the enemy. One of them. She stood slowly, fitted the communicator back into her belt, and picked up her science package from where she had left it unattended. I'm alone, against all of them. I have to be strong. Have to make them pay for what they did to me. She concentrated, and changed, and an instant later she was a sleek, silent panther, disappearing into the undergrowth that had encroached on the once-temple's ruins. We have work to do. Gabrielle lay in her bunk, trying not to admit to being troubled. Xena had already been at the Eagle by the time she had got back, and her demeanour had been... cold. Almost hostile, the redhead thought glumly. "Hi!" What did I do? Did I upset her somehow? Did I say something wrong? Stirring in her suddenly-uncomfortable bunk she replayed in her mind every word she had exchanged with the mysterious Psychon earlier that day. She practically told me she wanted to be friends. Was it holding her hand? Maybe she didn't like that... but she didn't say anything, she didn't even look upset about it. Well she's alien, maybe she looks different when she's upset. But everything else about how she behaved made sense, why just that? What did I do wrong? Why does she... She scowled in the darkness, resisting the thought. The way she looked at me, in the cockpit... That was... She fought herself, feeling stupid and childish for the tears that were threatening to well up in her eyes. What made her hate me? "I don't hate you Gabrielle... I could never hate you." "Then why-" "Shhh..." She's sitting on the bunk, next to me. Staring down, a gentle stare. "You don't have to say anything..." Her hand on my shoulder, above the covers. Sliding beneath. On my skin. Gabrielle's breath caught as Xena slowly slid the tight covers down to her waist. The dark-haired woman breathed in slowly at the sight of the redhead, naked to the waist, as if she was savouring a perfume, then let it out again in a sigh that tickled Gabrielle's skin. "Just relax..." She leaned slowly down, her hair spilling off her shoulders, caressing Gabrielle's breasts as she drew closer. Oh, god... Xena's mouth closed around the redhead's stiff nipple, and she sucked gently, slowly. Nothing moved in the world, aside from Xena's tongue, hidden from view - their two bodies were motionless, floating in the moment. Gabrielle's held breath came shuddering out, a quiet moan with it, and Xena lifted her head, craning upwards as her hand, flat against Gabrielle's waist, moved lower still. Gabrielle read Xena's eyes as easily as if they were a book. I like that sound. I want to drink it in. Her mouth opened, beckoning Xena's. Xena's hand caressed her vulva, gently but purposefully parting her lips. Her lips were so close. Her fingertip was almost inside. Yes. Gabrielle could feel Xena's breathing touching her lips, even a tenuous zephyr reaching inside, stroking the top of her tongue. Please! A second fingertip nudges its way in beside the first, both poised to delve. I need you. Their lips touched, merged - Xena's fingers thrust - Gabrielle felt herself open, felt Xena enter her, and own her. I love you! "Xena-" Gabrielle's eyes opened, startled. For a moment the darkness and silence confused her, then she remembered. The dream... she had spoken aloud in her sleep, woken herself up. The dream... oh boy. She gingerly reached beneath the covers and touched herself, feeling sweat and pleasure. Oh, boy... ...gabrielle... Gabrielle stopped dead. She had felt the thought pass through her mind, but something, some instinct, told her that it wasn't hers. Gabrielle? "Who's there?" she asked, feeling foolish - a child afraid of the bogeyman in the dark. "Gabrielle?" She clamped her mouth shut, trying to ignore her heart's hammering. Something had spoken - not a thought, or a whisper, but a real voice in the dark, near her. "Xena?" No answer. She tilted her head, seeing no light coming from the cockpit at the end of the Eagle's central hallway, besides the constant, tiny running lights. And Xena's bunk was empty, too. "Gabrielle, I need you to hear me." Gabrielle reached stealthily out, got her hand caught in the edge of her blanket, fumbled in frustration, then managed to find and slap the control panel beside her bunk, bathing the crew quarters in light. Her eyes widened as she saw the ghost of a form standing over her, looking down at her, and she sat up so quickly that she banged her head on the ceiling above her bunk. "Ow! Goddammit..." "Gabrielle?" "Sonofa... Who are you? What are you?" She opened a drawer in the bunk's recessed wall and drew out a laser. "I'm not here to hurt you, but I will defend myself." "I mean you no harm, but you're in danger," the form said. It was difficult for Gabrielle to see - when she had caught it out of the corner of her eye, and now when she blinked, there was clearly something there, but when she tried to look straight at it, to study it, it seemed to blend into the far wall of the crew quarters and vanish. "Wait, why am I in danger?" she asked. "From who?" "Your companion." "Xena? How? Why? Who are you?" As best she could tell, the spectral form was a woman. There was a suggestion of drapes, cloth of some kind, around her, but they were as insubstantial as she was, and half the time she seemed more naked than not. "I must explain!" the figure insisted. "Please, concentrate! Look at me, believe I exist!" "I know you exist, I can see you," Gabrielle muttered. "Xena!" "She is gone," the woman said. She did seem to be becoming more solid. More real... "Gone where?" Gabrielle demanded. She sat up, avoiding the ceiling this time, and pulled on a vest, feeling absurdly self-conscious about being naked in the presence of some kind of ghost. "The other has taken her." "Taken her where?" "Taken her in here," the ghost said, tapping its forehead. It was almost solid now - a woman, human or close enough in appearance, wearing some kind of diaphanous dress. Gabrielle blinked as certain private parts of her became fairly clearly visible - the sexual rush of her dream hadn't yet worn off entirely. "Okay, wait," she said, gathering her wits. "Start from the beginning - whatever it is you want from me, I'm not going to help until I know what's going on, so... who and what are you?" "I don't have a name," the woman said - she was speaking faster, sounding more composed, sure of herself, as she faded more into being. "I'm a remnant of the people who lived here, a long time ago." "People lived here?" Gabrielle asked. "A long time ago," the woman emphasised. "So long their footprints on the world are all but washed away, by rain and wind. Your friend found the remains of a temple, where I dwell." "The rocks?" Gabrielle said sceptically. "She said there wasn't anything there." "She'd fallen under the influence of another being, like me, who remains here. An evil creature. I saw him sense her approaching, I saw him descend on her, and... I'm not as strong, I couldn't stop it. I looked for others like her, to help her. I found you." "Okay, what kind of being are you? You're incorporeal?" "I'm a feeling," the woman said simply. "Those who thrived here appreciated feelings. They studied them, admired their art and their function. I was created to be shown, to be savoured as an example. There were many of us, everywhere. People would come to see us, and feel us, to experience us in our purest form." "Come to see you... you mean like some kind of gallery?" Gabrielle wondered. "An exhibition of... of feelings, like art?" "Yes," the feeling nodded. "Like art. But my people waned, and eventually they were gone. They stopped coming to see us, and then there were none at all. At last the places where we were kept succumbed to age, and we were free. All we found outside were ruins." "How long ago was this?" "Oh, a long time. Thousands of years. I haven't kept count. Do you understand, though?" "Yes, I think so," Gabrielle said warily. "But what's this about Xena? And this other one of you?" "He has taken her," the feeling repeated. "He isn't like me - I touched you only to gain enough strength to be seen, but he consumes those he touches." "Touched me- you mean my dream?" Gabrielle's eyes widened. "That was you?" "It was you," the feeling insisted. "I don't create feelings in you. I could, but... I don't. Then I would be like him. I am desire, passion - love. I... encouraged you to explore those feelings that you already had, that would help me to be seen by you. Your love for her. Your desire for her. They exist - I made it easier for you to feel them, that's all." "Okay, well thanks, but stay out of my feelings will you?" Gabrielle frowned. "I apologise," the feeling said, and somewhat to Gabrielle's surprise she did seem genuinely sorry. "I did what I had to, so I could make myself heard, and warm you." "Alright," Gabrielle nodded. "So you're love - Aphrodite in the not-exactly-flesh. What's this other?" "War," Aphrodite said flatly. "Fear-become-hatred. Pain that lashes out at anything around it. He was always strong, and when the temple crumbled he preyed on the others, worked his way inside them and made them like himself. There was... an invisible war, over the dust of the world that made us. He and I are the only survivors, he because of the strength he gained, I because... I'm not like him. That saved me - if I lapsed, if I let myself be like him, he would be able to kill me." "And this War guy has done something to Xena?" Gabrielle asked sharply. "Taken her, gotten inside her mind," Aphrodite nodded. "Magnified her pain, made tiny fears swell up, made her anger grow and grow. He wants her to kill, to make another war among your people. Once they fear and hurt, he can have them too." "Great," Gabrielle muttered. She slid out of her bunk and began to pull on her flight suit. "Keep talking, what do I need to do? You said I could help Xena, how?" "I don't know," Aphrodite admitted. "You have to... Somehow, she needs to realise that what she is feeling isn't her own. He won't reveal himself to her, as I have to you - he can only sway her so long as she believes her thoughts are her own. If you can make her not hate, I think she will realise, and he will be forced from her." "I have to make her not hate?" Gabrielle asked. "It will not be easy," Aphrodite said sadly. "He knows his weakness. He has made her fearful of you, hateful of you, of all your kind. She will believe you are her enemy, she won't listen to what you say to her. You have to make her believe, somehow." "That's your plan?" Gabrielle snorted, zipping up her suit. "'Make her believe,' that's it? What am I supposed to do, draw her a diagram? Come on," she added before Aphrodite could respond, waving for the feeling to follow her to the cockpit. Aphrodite walked in her wake, passing through the Eagle's inner bulkheads, and found the redhead staring at the main console in frustration. "I don't understand," she said. "Communications are offline," Gabrielle said curtly. "She's slagged the circuits in the main array, and the back-up regulator crystal is missing. There's no way to contact the others." "There're others? More of your kind?" "Two more Eagles - ships like this," Gabrielle explained. "One on the far side of the planet, one on the moon. Plus Alpha, a couple of days flight away... Your War guy couldn't reach them, could he?" "He's with Xena," Aphrodite shook her head. "He can't be in two places at once, and he won't leave her for fear she'll regain her senses. Xena took something from this 'Eagle'." "Yeah, a crystal, about this big," Gabrielle muttered, holding her fingers apart. "It's fair to assume she took it so she could repair the system, if she needed to. No sense cutting yourself off-" "No, it was larger," Aphrodite interrupted. "I saw her. She left here with a, device, of some kind. I don't know your technology. This big," she finished, holding her hands apart half a metre. "That wasn't the crystal," Gabrielle frowned. "You saw her take this thing?" "I was with you, urging you to dream - I heard her move from this room, and watched her go. Outside, she took something from the ship." "Show me," Gabrielle said. "Here," Aphrodite, waist-deep in the ground, pointed to an open panel on the underside of the Eagle. Gabrielle crouched down and scrambled alongside her to see. "Oh god," she muttered. "She's got the engine core." "A flight mechanism?" the feeling asked. "To keep you from leaving?" "There's a hundred ways she could have immobilised the Eagle," Gabrielle shook her head. "This is the only one that involves her being in possession of, basically, a fusion bomb." "A weapon?" "If she modifies it properly - I'm sure she can." Gabrielle crawled back into the open and looked around. Reluctantly, she drew her laser from its holster on her belt. "Where's she gone?" she wondered. "Away from you," Aphrodite replied. "She doesn't hate you - being around her causes conflict. It's easier for her to be made to focus on pain and hate when she's alone." "Alright," Gabrielle said vaguely. She frowned, then her face lit up in brief triumph, and she raced back inside the Eagle, emerging a moment later with a scanner. "She'll have her beacon off," she explained as she worked on the device, "but she can't deactivate the fusion lasers, or she'd never be able to get them started again, and the core would be useless, so, all I have to do is zero in on an active power source." "You can find her?" Aphrodite asked hopefully. "I'd better," Gabrielle replied. Surrounded by the wind-tamed remains of the old temple, Xena worked quietly and carefully, bypassing and reconnecting tiny circuit pathways in the innards of the dome-like engine core. She was barely visible in the dim glow of the core's interior lights, with faint auras of green and red appearing and vanishing on her face as she worked, but her hands were sure in the darkness - her eyes gave off a faint blue glow, from haloes surrounding the three pupils in each. Behind her eyes, a world burned. Psychon. Home... All gone. All DEAD! Koenig, Russel, Carter, all the Alpha, all of them! all guilty, murderers. Killers! Father... all gone. Her ears, large and pointed, picked up something near-silent on the night air. She looked up for a moment, then back down, resuming her work. You won't stop me. You stopped my father, all of you, destroyed the Psyche machine, destroyed Psychon's last hope to be revived. Destroyed the only thing holding my world together! Left my father to burn, took me with them like a trophy... I wanted to stay. I wanted to stay, father! For a moment her hands stilled, and a single tear slipped from her eye. "Take her away! Get Xena away from here Commander! Save yourselves! Save her!" his voice so desperate, all traces of anger gone, only pleading that his only child be saved the destruction... A flood of hatred washed the thought away. THEY killed him, if not for them, he'd have lived! Psychon would have lived! They have to understand what they did. They have to pay for what they did. I'll make them. She snorted a contemptuous breath as the sound of someone moving through the brush came to her. Let her come. I'll make her pay for what her kind did to me. "Xena!" Xena's eyes flickered back to their usual appearance as a torchlight fell on her. She carefully picked up the core in one hand, resting it on her hip, then stood and turned to face Gabrielle, just visible in the backlight of the torch she held. In her other hand was the laser. "Go away Gabrielle," she said bluntly. "Xena, don't do this," the redhead responded firmly. "You can't stop it," Xena shrugged. "The core's shielding is down. Fire that laser at me - even on stun - and you'll destabilise the fusion lasers inside. You know what that means." "Xena you have to listen to me-" "We burn. Just like Psychon did." "Xena," Gabrielle held her laser aside, "there's something, an entity, that's affecting you. It's making you hate. I know you can feel it, look at what you're doing!" "Nothing's making me do this," Xena sneered. "Except you. All of you Alphans, you came to Psychon, lied, destroyed, you made my world burn!" "Xena please!" "My father, my kind, my whole race, gone! For what? Your precious morality - my father could have saved Psychon, but you wouldn't listen! You'd rather let a whole world die than just, just walk away..." "Xena-" "No more! Alpha ends here." Xena began slowly walking forward. "No more, no more inflicting your ways, your judgements on everyone else. The galaxy doesn't need you, it doesn't want you! So I'm going to finish it." "Xena, this isn't you talking, this isn't you thinking!" "Gabrielle, go away. Just walk away, get out of my way and don't come back. That's the only chance I'm going to give you." "And then what?" Gabrielle glared. "I've installed a trigger in the core," Xena said calmly. "Undetectable. Eagle Six will take off on schedule, but have a minor engine failure en route to Alpha. Nothing serious, just enough to allow the other Eagles to arrive and land first. My landing approach will be close enough to the central complex. I'll detonate the core - no more Moonbase Alpha. It'll all be over. Everyone will be safe from you." "Xena, listen! This creature feeds on hate and violence, and it's using you. It wants you to hurt people, to make them angry, so it can feed on them too-" "You're lying." Xena looked Gabrielle in the eyes. "I'm not." "Of course you are, you want your precious Alpha, your crusade across the galaxy, to go on. I'm not listening." "What are you going to do, leave me here?" Gabrielle demanded. "Why not?" Xena shrugged, turning away. "You can't stop me, you can't hurt me - once Alpha's gone you'll have no way of getting away from here. You'll never be able to hurt anyone." "Why not... kill me," Gabrielle said, hesitating mid-way. "Xena? Why not just kill me? You're that sure I won't find some way to contact Alpha, to warn them?" "How? You've got no communications, no access to the satellite-" "You're that sure?" Gabrielle insisted. "Well then, why not just kill me instead of leaving me to die?" She advanced on a surprised Xena. "You'll survive," the Psychon replied. "This world can keep you alive well enough." "Great, a few decades of utter loneliness, and then dying alone," Gabrielle spat. "No thanks! Here, I'll make it easy for you." She aimed her laser again, flipping a switch on top of it that made all four chambers glow with power. "Kill me now, or I swear to god I'll fire," she said, fighting down the fear in her own voice. She swallowed and met her opponent's gaze as Xena drew her own laser and aimed it between her eyes. "Go on," she challenged, her body shaking but her hand steady. "You're going to kill hundreds... what's one more?" Gabrielle, be careful, came the ethereal voice that only she could hear. The other is so strong in her... "I know what I'm doing," Gabrielle said quietly. "Don't think I won't fire," Xena warned, assuming Gabrielle had spoken to her. "Xena?" "I will." "Xena, please?" Gabrielle said, tears welling up in her eyes. "I'm your friend, remember? Yesterday, by the lake? I'm your friend." "You hate me. All of you do!" "I don't! Xena I promise, I don't hate you... and I wish I'd gotten up the courage to get to know you earlier and better, but I am your friend! And you probably won't believe this, and I don't blame you, but it's the truth... I... love you. Xena. I just feel it. I love you, and... and please don't let this happen to you, because I don't want to lose you when we've only just started..." "You can't," Xena said quietly - her voice was unreadable, perhaps disdain, perhaps disbelief. "But I do," Gabrielle shrugged hopelessly. "I'm Psychon, you're human." "But I do." "You... can't..." "I do." "...no-one can..." "...I do." "Gab...rielle?" Gabrielle finally saw, something, in Xena's eyes, and strained to keep from jumping for joy. "Xena, it's me. The hate isn't you, Xena. Don't let it be you." The other is weakening! "Don't leave me?" Gabrielle appealed. Xena's face shifted, emotions passing through her like rushing water - fear, disbelief, suspicion, denial, heartbreak, betrayal... and finally a twisted, tragic mix of rage and shame. She gave a single half-sobbing cry, then the core was falling from her grip, Gabrielle lunged forward to catch it, and a raven was soaring into the sky, black feathers vanishing in the night, the sound of wings beating against the air all the remained of her, until they too faded. Gabrielle fought to catch her breath and still her racing heart. She is free, Aphrodite's voice drifted on the breeze. "Why did she go? Where is she?" Her feelings are her own. I can't say. But the other is weakened, and I can hold him, for a while. Long enough for you and the others like you to escape. Leave us here. "Leave you too?" This is our place, the feeling said sadly. And others could come, one day... I can't leave him to harm them. Gabrielle got slowly to her feet, carefully put down the core, and gathered up Xena's scattered equipment, including the missing communications crystal. With a little difficulty she worked some carrying straps around the core, tightened them carefully, and hefted the unit onto her back. "I'm sorry," she said to the night. "That we can't take you with us, I mean. I..." She hesitated, unsure of how to say what she wanted. I know, the voice said. Go, though. You must go. I hope... she comes to you. "Thank you," Gabrielle said quietly, before picking up her dropped torch and walking out of the old temple. Gabrielle looked up, from her perch on the tip of the Eagle's embarkation ramp. The whine of the take-off engines idling made it difficult to hear beyond a few metres, but she was sure she had heard a twig crack somewhere in the forest. Uncurling from her seated position she scanned her surroundings, and a relieved smile broke over her face as she spotted Xena emerging from the trees. The Psychon had been crying, that much was obvious from her reddened eyes and the dried trails on her cheeks. She hesitated as Gabrielle ran to her, mouth open but unable to speak. Gabrielle, too, found herself unsure of how to begin. "Xena," she said simply, hoping the single name carried her relief, and her hope. "I... I need you to know... Gabrielle... I'm ashamed-" Gabrielle shook her head, and on an impulse took Xena's hands, pulled her close, and hugged her fiercely. "Gabrielle," Xena whispered, burying her face in the redhead's hair. "Gabrielle..." "It's alright," Gabrielle sobbed joyously, "everything's alright, I promise..." She managed to gain some control over herself, and drew back a little, keeping Xena's arms where they had instinctively wrapped around her waist. "Come on," she said, "let's go, huh? The core's fixed, and all." "You're all ready to leave," Xena said, trying a little smile. "Now that you're here," Gabrielle nodded. She walked with Xena, close to her, keeping hold of her hand, as the two of them ascended the ramp, and took one last look at the world outside. Gabrielle felt Xena grip her hand tightly, and turned to her. "Psychon was like this once," she said, gazing into Gabrielle's eyes. "But there were wars, and the world was dying. My father created a machine, Psyche, to reverse the damage, but... the secret he kept, Psyche consumed people, people's minds, for its energy. He wanted Alpha to fuel his work, but... Koenig told me to look in the catacombs, where they had been captured, convinced me even though my father told me they were pirates, that they wanted to destroy us. I looked... I saw the bodies, all the people he'd killed..." She swallowed, and continued with obvious difficulty. "I let Koenig and the others free, and they confronted my father. There was... they fought, over Psyche, and it was damaged. It was dying, and the world was dying with it. My father... he was trapped, burning in the ruins, and he yelled to them to... to take me, to save me. His last words... he was in incredible pain, dying, and his last words were for me... and he was my father... Even knowing what he'd done, he was my father, and I... loved him." "It's alright," Gabrielle offered. "He would have killed you all, but I loved him," Xena shook her head. "How do I... I can't ask forgiveness, for that. How can I?" "You just ask," Gabrielle said, stepping closer and moving her hand up Xena's arm, stroking her forearm comfortingly. "Gabrielle...?" "He was your father," Gabrielle said. "I understand. I forgive you." "You..." Xena looked almost scared. "What I did here-" "I forgive you," Gabrielle repeated. "I love you," she added in a whisper. "I... don't deserve love," Xena said sadly. "I think you do," Gabrielle replied. "And I love you in any case." She reached over Xena's shoulder and touched the ramp controls, sealing the Eagle for take-off. "Let's go home." Gabrielle sat at her workstation in the Eagle's quarters and pondered the last twenty-four hours. She'd finished her full report and sent it on its way to Alpha, and to the Commander on Eagle Three. Based on her first, brief report of what she and Xena had encountered the other two Eagles had lifted off as soon as they were ready, and all four crew members on board them had independently reported no signs of strange behaviour in their crewmates - though a period of quarantine when they returned to Alpha was a given in any case. Xena was still in the cockpit, drafting her technical report on the changes she had made to the engine core, just for the sake of completeness. Gabrielle felt elated, and drained. It hadn't been like this when the moon had left Earth - the first days had been a mad scramble to keep the base from failing completely, and after that, a gradual transition from round-the-clock work to a more normal schedule, but there had never been a sense of completion. Even now Alpha was still working to ensure its survival, coping with shortages, searching for new ways to make do with what they could get. But Olympus was behind them now, the danger over, faced and defeated. Gabrielle wondered if Alpha would ever feel like this, and ruefully supposed not - an isolated moonbase, continually being tossed through the galaxy via space-warp, would probably never run out of hurdles to overcome. But today, at least, Gabrielle felt the relief of leaving a danger behind, for good. And Xena, she mused. Both of us escaping... Xena had been thoughtful since their departure, warm and receptive to Gabrielle's company, but it was clear enough that her feelings ran very deep, and couldn't be rushed. Gabrielle was content with the promise that something had begun between them - her feelings had moved from 'if only' to 'when,' and she didn't mind waiting. "Gabrielle," Xena's voice came from behind her, almost a whisper. Gabrielle released the belt holding her in place and turned, pushing herself gently away from the workstation. When she saw Xena she gaped, eyes and mouth wide open, and it was only the long hours of zero-gee training, drummed into her until they became instinct, that let her grab a hand-hold before she floated off and hit her head on the ceiling. The Psychon was floating in the entrance to the central corridor, and stark naked. She had one hand on the doorway's guide-rail, to keep herself steady; her legs were slightly crossed, and her head was bowed, but she was watching Gabrielle stare at her, and made no move to cover herself. "Xena," the redhead breathed. Xena was more than she had imagined - smooth and strong, firm muscles beneath flawless skin. The pointed stripes that framed her face were repeated down her body - a pair coming over her shoulders and curving inward to end beneath her collarbone, another pair beneath her arms that curved upward, as if to cup her breasts, a pair at her waist that didn't curve at all, but almost touched at the centre of her stomach where her belly button would be, if her smooth belly had sported one at all; finally, a pair coming over her hips that curved down, narrowing to points in the vee of her thighs, on either side of her hairless mound. "Gabrielle," she said softly. "You bared yourself in front of me - to save me." "You... don't have to-" Gabrielle began, but Xena quickly shook her head. "That's not why I'm doing this," she said. "It's one reason why I want to, but only one. Because of who you are. Because of how I feel when you look at me. Because I think, I love you. Because... I want this..." She pushed away from the doorway and drifted to Gabrielle, gently nudging her back onto her workstation desk, parting her legs to straddle her as she made contact, then gripping the desk with her lower legs to keep them both in place. "Xena..." Gabrielle tried again, finding words hard to come by. "Do you want this?" Xena asked, taking Gabrielle's hands in hers. "I'm almost certain... I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't. Gabrielle? You only have to say yes." "Oh, god yes." Xena nodded, smiling, and brought Gabrielle's hands to her face. Slowly, gently, she stroked the redhead's fingertips along the stripes on her cheeks - her eyes closed, her breathing quickened, her hips moved of their own volition, pressing herself urgently into Gabrielle's stomach. It was too much for Gabrielle to resist, and she had little intention of trying. Bringing Xena's lips to hers she kissed the alien woman, just as she'd imagined, feeling Xena explore her mouth even as she delved deep herself. Her tongue was hot, and carried her taste with it into Gabrielle's mouth. Almost... chocolate, she thought dreamily, revelling in the unexpected flavour, rich and addictive in her mouth. Xena's hands were at her collar, undoing her flight suit, and she helped quickly, pulling her arms free of the sleeves and undoing her bra as Xena pulled the suit down to her waist. "Oh, yes," she breathed, as Xena left her mouth and trailed a path down her neck, her lips and tongue ceaseless. She licked far more than she kissed, Gabrielle noted dimly, wondering if it was a Psychon thing, or if there was just something about her skin that tasted good to Xena's palette. Thought quickly fled as Xena laved her way down her shoulders to her chest, and lovingly set to work bathing her breasts, and especially her nipples. She had always been sensitive there, especially when aroused - at times, pleasuring herself, she had come close to orgasm simply from kneading her breasts, squeezing her nipples, so it wasn't a new sensation to her, but Xena's tongue was exquisite beyond belief. She barely registered Xena lifting both of them off the desk, and stripping her of her suit and panties, but she felt every moment when Xena's hand pressed between her legs, and her strong fingers massaged her lips. "Xeeenaaaa," she moaned, feeling herself being tenderly opened, "ohgodyesssss... Yess!" Xena was gentle inside her, moving slowly at first, but already Gabrielle felt herself soaking her fingers, and it seemed like no time at all before Xena was thrusting confidently, twisting back and forth as she worked two fingers in as deep as they would go. She was helpless to hold back - with a wordless moan she clutched her hands in Xena's hair, holding her mouth against her breasts, and came copiously all over her pumping fingers. "Xena," she panted, as Xena slowed her loving assault on her senses, "Xena... oh god that's... Xena..." She noticed something, motion. "Xena, we're floating..." "Oops," Xena said, glancing around and snagging a handhold with her free hand before they could float clear of the workstation. "I thought I was holding on... Guess I got a bit wrapped up in what I was doing." "Speaking as what you were doing, I don't mind one bit," Gabrielle chuckled. "Now I know I love you," Xena murmured, licking Gabrielle's nipples gently. "I love you, Xena," Gabrielle replied. "I... can I show you?" "Show me?" Xena said, curious. "I want to make you feel like that," Gabrielle explained. "To please you, I... Can I?" "Yes," Xena smiled, manoeuvring herself up Gabrielle's body to look her in the eye. "Of course, yes." "I... hate to break the moment," Gabrielle admitted, "but how do we keep from floating off, in the middle of... you know..." "Oh," Xena chuckled. "Um..." She glanced around idly, and then smiled. "Here," she said, disengaging from Gabrielle and pushing herself across the quarters, to the exercise equipment. She picked up an elastic strap, then looped the fixed waist belt around one ankle, then stretched as far as she could towards the bunks. "Help me reach that," she said, gesturing to a handhold just below Gabrielle's bunk. Gabrielle floated over and, bracing herself, pulled the end of the strap in Xena's hands through the handhold. She pushed away from the bunks and drifted down beside Xena, watching as she pulled the elastic strap tight, the muscles in her arms bunching, and then looped it around her wrists and held on. "There," she grinned as Gabrielle peered up at her. "Safe and secure... and accessible," she added with a mischievous grin, letting her free leg drift away from the other. "You're upside-down," Gabrielle chuckled, pushing herself closer. "We're in space," Xena deadpanned, "no such thing." "Xena," Gabrielle said, "how do I..." She swallowed, suddenly feeling like an awkward teenager. "Close enough to human," Xena smiled. "There's nothing that should be problematic. A few differences, but," she winked, "I'll let you discover them." Gabrielle smiled too, and manoeuvred herself beneath Xena - it was true what she said, when she focused on her lover alone, the orientation of the room became irrelevant. She stretched out her legs and closed them gently around Xena's waist, pulling her still-wet sex to her stomach. "Mmmm," Xena purred. Gabrielle leaned down - up - and licked her dark-coloured ear. "I love you," she whispered. Xena tilted her head back, exposing her neck, and Gabrielle quickly began kissing her. Guessing that licking was more familiar to her, she deliberately kissed, closing her mouth over Xena's skin and sucking gently, and was rewarded by a series of delighted moans. Then she reached Xena's shoulders, and felt the Psychon jump as her lips made contact with one of the stripes there. "Xena?" she asked. "No, I'm fine," Xena replied, breathless. "It was... kind of taboo, among Psychons, to touch our body stripes, like that." "I'm sorry, I didn't-" Gabrielle began. "No! No, Gabrielle, it's okay," Xena quickly assured her. "I like it... I suppose, I just wasn't quite prepared for how it'd feel, for you to touch me like that..." "Good?" Gabrielle asked, her grin returning. "Naughty," Xena smirked. Gabrielle shared her smirk, and dipped her head to bestow a long, wet lick all the way up from the tip of a stripe to where it curved around behind her neck. Xena went almost rigid, gasping an alien word that Gabrielle was sure was far from delicate. "I like this," Gabrielle murmured teasingly. "A-again," Xena moaned. Gabrielle kissed and licked, gleefully drinking in the almost-orgasmic reactions Xena had to every loving caress of her stripes. Having thoroughly explored those around her neck, the redhead moved down to her breasts, massaging them gently at first, and increasingly firmly as Xena responded, kissing and licking, paying special attention to the stripes just beneath the generous orbs. With Xena in an almost frantic state she descended further, licking up the juices she had deposited on Xena's abdomen when she had first straddled her, not missing her waist stripes in the process, before coming at last to her vulva. She had no idea if Psychons practised oral sex, but the temptation of Xena's sex was irresistible. She contented herself at first with gentle explorations, lightly kissing the stripes that ran over her hips and down to her mound, and caressing her smooth, pale lips. At the attention Gabrielle was giving her, Xena opened of her own accord, her lips spreading like the petals of a flower at dawn. Gabrielle ran her fingers and tongue across the soft flesh inside, finding it shared the chocolate-like flavour, and discovering that the opening within ran the full length of Xena's sex, from top to bottom. Encouraged by Xena's blissful moans she worked a finger into her, then another - she was tight, but only from the muscles on either side of her opening, and Gabrielle quickly had three fingers, lined up flat, sliding in and out of her lover's entrancing core. Reluctantly abandoning the rich taste of her sex for what, she hoped, would bring Xena a great deal more pleasure, Gabrielle craned her neck up and began licking more insistently at her lowest stripes. Xena's reaction was exactly as she'd hoped - her hips thrust down eagerly onto Gabrielle's fingers, and with a growling moan of "Mooorrreeee," she shuddered through what seemed to be a climax. Gabrielle obliged, lining up her fourth finger and working her hand into her lover, slowly venturing deeper until her thumb bumped against her pubic bone. Xena had no clit that Gabrielle could locate, but the reactions she was getting to her thrusting fingers, and her lips and tongue on the Psychon's stripes, seemed to make this irrelevant. Gabrielle steadily increased her pace, and her confidence grew with each moan and hoarse, whispered endearment that passed Xena's lips, as well as the eager contortions of her body. Somehow Xena's free leg found its way between Gabrielle's, and without at first realising it she began grinding herself onto her lover's smooth thigh. Xena's luscious scent was in the air now, wafting into Gabrielle's lungs with every breath, urging her on - she could feel strong muscles inside Xena, against her fingertips when she thrust deep, and she worked to caress them with every inward stroke, marking them as some kind of g-spot, from Xena's intense reactions. "Gabrielle," she moaned urgently, "Gab-rielle..." "Xena," Gabrielle whispered into her skin. "Gabrielle, more," Xena pleaded. Love made caution win out over eagerness, and Gabrielle looked up. "You're sure?" she asked. "Yes," Xena replied without hesitation. "Gabrielle... inside me. Please..." Thought I already was, Gabrielle mused, but with Xena's urging she felt nothing but eagerness as she lowered her head, licking slowly along the Psychon's stripes, and tucked her thumb into her palm, preparing to venture deeper. She was anticipating a slow process, but whether consciously or not, Xena's body opened itself with gleeful eagerness as her hand slowly sunk in. The muscles she had felt before were all around her fingertips, gripping, pulling, and as Gabrielle pushed in beyond where she had reached before, she let out a yelp of surprise as her fingers were yanked inwards, and before she knew it her hand and a good inch of her forearm had vanished into the alien woman. "Oh my god!" she exclaimed. "Are you-" "Ooooohhhhhh," Xena moaned, leaving no doubt as to how she felt. "Gods, yesssssss!" Gabrielle's eyes were wide, staring at Xena's body, but the moment was euphoric, and she quickly allowed herself to be swept away by it. Inside Xena, beyond the ring of powerful muscles now stretched around the widest part of her hand, her lover was hot and soft, feeling almost like thick liquid when Gabrielle moved her fingers, yet closing tightly like a glove when she stilled her movements. The redhead moved experimentally, closing her mouth on Xena's stripes and sucking the sensitive skin to ensure she felt no lapse in pleasure, but she discovered it was all but unnecessary - to judge by Xena's reactions, any motion at all in this inner sanctum of hers brought her immense pleasure. Gabrielle sped up, confidence increasing again. Sucking firmly on Xena's skin, she began working her hand in and out, withdrawing until her thumb was almost free, then plunging back in, feeling the ring of muscles ripple and spasm each time it admitted her. With each entry she spread her fingers wide and twisted her arm, swirling her hand around, as if she were stirring a liquid. Her forearm was coated in sweet-smelling wetness - each time she withdrew, droplets escaped and formed tiny, perfect spheres in the weightless air. She lifted her head from time to time to capture one, and the explosion of taste in her mouth came close to causing her to orgasm. "Gab...ri...elle," Xena moaned, sounding almost desperate - Gabrielle heard a different note in her voice from her previous moans, and slowed a little, to let her speak without overwhelming her. "Xena," she murmured once more. "When I... climax," the Psychon whispered, "please... I have to taste you..." Gabrielle glanced up at her, finding her staring down, pleasure and pleading mixed in her face. "Please," she went on. "When it happens... my senses... heighten... I want to taste you, then... completely..." Gabrielle nodded, and resumed her pace within her lover, drawing more and more frantic moans from her. Releasing Xena's now-glistening wet thigh Gabrielle swung herself slowly around, twisting her arm around so that she didn't have to take it from inside Xena in the process, until at last she was floating above her, her legs on either side of her head. She felt Xena moving, then one of her hands was free, gripping the redhead's thigh, then her hip, pulling her down. Gabrielle increased the pace of her thrusts, determined to bring Xena the climax she was craving. Throwing caution to the wind she closed her lips over the widest part of her stripe, just above her hip, gently bit the soft skin, and sucked hard. Xena tensed, then spasmed wildly, clutching Gabrielle's sex to her face - so hard the redhead was worried she might hurt herself, but she gave no sigh of any discomfort, or indeed any feeling besides ravenously orgasmic. Her sex clutched hard at Gabrielle, not painfully, but hard enough that she wasn't sure she could have withdrawn her hand if she had wanted to, and to her surprise, the striped adorning her body actually began to glow, a pulsing scarlet light welling up from deep beneath her skin, as if she was on fire inside. Her mouth and tongue were insatiable on Gabrielle's sex, first on her lips, then delving inside, deeper and deeper - Gabrielle was first astonished, then elated, and at last incapable of thought at all, as her whole being folded in around the single, incredible moment of a climax that seemed to stretch on and on, repeating endlessly, forever... ever... Gabrielle became aware of contentment, and warmth, and a hand caressing her face. One by one her senses returned to her, and she opened her eyes, to find herself in her bunk, in Xena's arms. "Wa happen?" she asked. "You passed out," Xena said quietly, stroking her cheek. "Actually, so did I, for a moment." "Oh," Gabrielle said, taking a moment to take this on board. "Ooohh," she added, as the full impact of their activities returned to her. Xena noticed her involuntary smile, and added her own. "Was it," Gabrielle said, "I mean... you liked... was I alright?" Xena's soft, lyrical laugh filled the Eagle's crew quarters. "Psychon had libraries of erotica," she said. "I used to read them, the stories, descriptions of how the best sensations felt... This would rival any one of them, easily." "Oh... good," Gabrielle smiled. "'Close enough' to human?" she added with a grin. "Like I said, a few differences," Xena smirked. "Wasn't it fun finding out?" "Uh-huh," Gabrielle nodded. "Being adventurous is very rewarding. And we've... still got almost two days before we get back to Alpha..." "Mmm-hmm," Xena agreed. "There's still some 'adventures' in me, if you'd like to try..." "I don't think I'll ever get tired of your adventures," Gabrielle purred. "Should I read up on Psychon physiology, or... are you enjoying the practical side of discovery better?" "The latter," Xena murmured, leaning down to kiss Gabrielle. "There's a technique called the velvet chalice," she whispered in the redhead's ear. "I've always wanted to try it, but it takes two... Are you game?" "Very," Gabrielle growled. Xena chuckled lustily, licking her earlobe, as their hands began to wander again. THE END |
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